6 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. 



There are fortunately other sources of informa- 

 tion, which explain their mode of tilling the land, 

 collecting the harvest, and various peculiarities of 

 their agriculture ; and, independent of what may 

 be gleaned from Herodotus and Diodorus, nume- 

 rous agricultural scenes, in the tombs of Thebes and 

 Lower Egypt, give full and amusing representations 

 of the process of ploughing, hoeing, sowing, reap- 

 ing, threshing, winnowing, and housing the grain. 



In considering the state of agriculture in Egypt, 

 we do not confine its importance to the direct and 

 tangible benefits it annually conferred upon the 

 people, by the improved condition of the produc- 

 tions of the soil ; the influence it had on the manners 

 and scientific acquirements of the people is no less 

 obvious, and worthy our contemplation ; and to 

 the peculiar nature of the Nile, and the effects of 

 its inundation, has been reasonably attributed the 

 early advancementof the Egyptians in geometry and 

 mensuration. Herodotus, Plato, Diodorus*, Strabot, 

 Clemens of Alexandria t, lamblichus, and others, 

 ascribe the origin of geometry to changes which 

 annually took place from the inundation, and to the 

 consequent necessity of adjusting the claims of each 

 person respecting the limits of the lands ; and, 

 though Herodotus may be wrong in limiting the 

 commencement of those observations to the reign of 

 Sesostris, his remark tends to the same point, and 

 confirmiS the general opinion that this science had 

 its origin in Egypt. 



* Diodor. i. 81. f Strabo, xvii. p. 542. 



t Clem. Strom i. p. 20. 



